


Little Ghost

by enbyofdionysus



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, I decided to let Nico be in a relationship with Octavian bc I actually like Will after TOA, M/M, Tarot, brief mention of nico/octavian but I don't actually go into it, nico is in south carolina bc he's serving in americorps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 12:34:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7268467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enbyofdionysus/pseuds/enbyofdionysus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico's recommended to a tarot reader when he starts questioning a not-so-healthy relationship between him and Octavian.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Jupanuma! Thanks for being such a rad reader <3

“It's pink,” Nico told his phone.

Between the beats of the windshield wipers, Nico looked up at the old, southern Victorian through his windshield. Although small, it was without a doubt very pretty; Nico always did enjoy classic architecture. But still. Pink.

Hazel's voice answered dryly from the other line, “You said you wanted a legitimate tarot reading. I got you a legitimate tarot reading.” Nico hummed. “Besides, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.”

He glanced at himself in the rear-view mirror and frowned. “Right, well,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. Pieces of it stuck up against his will. “I'm heading inside.”

“Good luck,” Hazel said cheerfully.

Nico slid from the car, bristling as the cool rain touched his neck and arms. Still, he welcomed it. Even after a year in South Carolina, he was still unused to the sticky heat of southern summers.

The old Victorian loomed above him, a stereotypical Halloween house rendered cute with its pastel color and white trim. Nico's hands itched at his sides. He headed up the walk. The dark floorboards creaked under his weight as he came up onto the porch. A fat tabby cat stared at him disinterestedly from the window. It wasn't that Nico expected paid tarot readers to be visions of Tim Burton; the fact that his own studio apartment was covered with fake skulls, fake spiders, and fake cobwebs happened to be a pure coincidence. And yet this hadn't been what he was expecting.

Nor was the man who answered the door.

When Nico thought of the word “psychic” and “tarot,” he thought of Hazel's mother: a cool figure in front of a crystal ball with sharp fingers and an even sharper eye. He also thought of his own grandmother: a woman with a biting sense of humor and an unkind sense of honesty.

He did _not_ picture a tall, gentle-looking man, with curls like his mother's gnocchi, dressed in a purple henley and dark jeans. His face, round and friendly, looked like it had never frowned in its life. Nico stared.

“Hi,” the man chirped. “You must be Nico, Hazel's brother.”

It took Nico a solid minute to respond, distracted by the unexpected thickness of the man's accent. “Uh, yes,” he said. He flushed at his awkwardness.

The man stepped aside with a smile. “I'm Pollux.”

Nico caught the faint scent of cologne as he slipped past him over the threshold. He stopped shortly in order to casually inhale it again as Pollux shut the door.

“Supposed to get severe thunderstorms later,” Pollux said with a wince. “Can I offer you something to drink? Water? Juice? Wine? Wait, you're driving.”

Nico allowed himself to smile. “Water would be fine, thank you.”

Pollux nodded once and slipped his way through a parlor on Nico's right and into a white-cabinet kitchen on the other side. Nico followed him but stayed in the parlor, taking in the quirky furniture that didn't quite seem to fit in with the house's exterior, but all seemed to come together in its own way.

“You can sit there if you want.” Pollux returned and gestured to a white couch with Nico's glass of water. “Just be careful of Mallow.”

“Mallow?” Nico looked down at the couch and startled as he realized it contained a pair of small eyes. The white cat blinked up at him. Nico blinked back.

“She doesn't bite,” Pollux said, “if you want to pet her.” He handed Nico his water.

Nico took it and gently touched the cat. “Did my sister tell you why I came?”

“I didn't ask,” Pollux replied. He took a seat in an old-looking chair and pulled open a small drawer on the coffee table between them.

Nico took his cue and carefully sat beside Mallow. The cat meowed in protest.

Pollux removed from the small drawer a square of silk cloth and a dark, wooden box. Nico watched as he pulled the tarot cards from the box. He shuffled them not unskillfully before settling them neatly on top of the cloth, now unfolded. He gestured for Nico to shuffle.

Nico took them, the ghost of Pollux's fingers on the cards burning against his hands. He shuffled.

“You can either ask the cards the question you want answered,” Pollux said, “or ask me. Whichever you're comfortable with.”

Nico looked up into Pollux's face. It was a ruddy color marked by two freckles on his right cheek as if God had pricked a staple there. His eyes, beautifully dark, held no judgment. Nico set the cards back down on the cloth. “I have a boyfriend,” he said. Then, “I want to know where it's headed.”

“You want to know whether you should stay together, you mean.”

“I know what I want,” Nico said. “I just don't know what he wants.”

“Have you considered talking to him?”

Nico jaw tensed.

Pollux cleared his throat and took the top card from the deck.

The artwork caught Nico's attention before the name of the card did. The back of the cards were black with gold etchings, but he hadn't thought the front of the cards would be the same. A man – no, a god – was etched in gold on the card hammering a lightning bolt.

 _Hephaestus_ , Nico thought.

 _300 attack power_ , his inner child thought.

“This is your first relationship in a while,” Pollux said, startling him. “You've been lonely in the past. You were hoping this boyfriend of yours would break you out of your isolation.”

Nico's neck burned, but he said nothing.

Pollux took the next card from the deck.

Athena sat on a throne beside an owl, gazing up at Nico upside down.

“You know something isn't right,” Pollux said, “but fear is keeping you from listening to your gut. You don't want to be alone again.”

Nico avoided his eyes. “What will happen?” he whispered.

Pollux took up the third card.

Nico recognized the fall of Troy.

“You've already made your decision,” Pollux said. “To continue on the path you're on will lead to disaster. Either you and he needs to make a change, and soon, if you want it to work.”

Nico stared at the deck with clasped hands. “And if I choose to make that change?”

Pollux picked up the last card.

Hermes' pleasant face smiled up at him, upright.

Nico shuddered.

“You alright?” Pollux asked.

Nico nodded once, picking up the cards and putting them back on top of the deck.

“You know, being single isn't a bad thing.” Pollux placed the cards back into the box and set them inside the small drawer. “And being single is better than being in a shitty relationship.”

“Don't lecture me,” Nico said. He ran his thumb between Mallow's ears. “Please.”

Pollux folded the cloth. “What's he like?”

“... Ambitious. Strong-willed.”

“He's not your best friend?”

“My best friend is my ex.”

Pollux's eyebrows went up. “Why'd you break up?”

“We were too different,” Nico said. “We couldn't live together.”

“And what made you want to date... um?”

“Octavian.”

Pollux made a face as if to say _Tragic_.

Nico's lips quirked as if to say _You can't really talk_. “It was his idea. We had been sleeping together for a few weeks. I wasn't really opposed to it, couldn't really see a downside.”

Pollux said, “And now here you are.”

“Hazel doesn't like him.”

“No?”

“She thinks he's an asshole.”

“He must be an asshole then.”

Nico frowned, but didn't disagree.

Pollux put the cloth away.

“Thank you,” Nico said. “How much do I owe you?”

Pollux waved a hand. “It's on the house. A friend of Hazel's is a friend of mine.”

“No, really. Let me pay you.”

“I said it's fine. But thank you.” He stood from his chair and Nico, too, stood from his. “I hope everything goes alright between you and Octavius.”

“Octavian.”

“I don't hear the difference.”

Nico laughed in spite of himself. “Thank you.” He gently touched the top of Mallow's head once more before following Pollux from the room. He nearly tripped over two other cats on his way to the door. “Have a good rest of your afternoon.”

“You too,” Pollux said, smiling. There were dimples on his cheeks.

Nico swallowed and smiled back. “Would it be alright to make another appointment? Say for this Friday?”

Pollux looked startled, but his smile only dipped a little. “Of course. I'm free in the morning and the evening.”

“Evening,” Nico said. He licked his lips. “Seven?”

“Alright.”

“I'll take wine instead of water.”

Realization dawned. Pollux's smile turned shy. “Alright.”

“I'll bring food.”

“I like chinese.”

Nico's heart skipped. “Okay.”  
  


***  
  


“So how'd it go?” Hazel asked him when he'd gotten back to his apartment.

Nico happily plucked white cat fur from his jeans. “I'm breaking up with Octavian tonight.”

“Oh, thank god.”

“And I have a date on Friday.”

“Oh, thank _god_.”

Nico laughed, the image of Hermes as The Fool making his chest warm again and again. “Yeah,” he said. “Thank god.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> The cards Nico pulls are Hephaestus (The Hermit), Athena (The High Priestess), the Fall of Troy (The Tower), and Hermes (The Fool). I know you're actually supposed to just do a general reading of three, but I started doing four recently with my own tarot deck (which I just got and it's super cute!!) because I don't like being stuck with a sad idea of what will happen. I like to know what might happen in the chance that I make a certain choice.


End file.
